Q 01: Why SE does not allow similar transformation
with audio tracks, not only MIDI?A 01: SE analyzes and transforms only MIDI-data. Wave-files are
absolutely a different kind of data. MIDI-sequence is a model, parametrical
representation of musical performance, whereas the wave-file is "analog" one.
Think of it as of a "bitmap" and "vector graphic". Probably in future
PM-technology will be applied to audio-data as well, and we hope to be able to
offer our input here too.

Q 02: When Styles imitating performance of famous musicians will
become available?A 02: We are still busy developing the SE Style Library of the most
typical performance manners in order to create a minimal but sufficient set for
imitation a naturally sounding instrument. We also invent original styles.
However we do plan to develop Star Styles. It is necessary to remember though,
that such styles will have to be used within the genre and melody mannerism of
the musician whose performance is imitated. It is very unlikely that you'll be
able to generate saxophone of Charlie Parker or guitar solo of Carlos Santana,
if the initial material is completely alien to the musical style of these
performers.

Q 03: In your Style Library there are no Styles for some traditional
instruments widely used in classical and jazz compositions.A 03: Creating SE Style Library, we primarily aimed to provide the user
with Styles for the most popular instruments. New instruments and manners are
constantly added to the Library. However most SE styles are rather versatile and
you can apply them to imitate more than one instrument. All you have to do is to
carefully use Transformation Regulators to fine-tune them to a particular
instrument.

Q 04: The professional musicians don't frequently use GM and XG. Will
SE work efficiently with more sophisticated equipment of Korg, EMU, Kurzweil,
Akai etc.?A 04: SE transformation of files is much more efficient on the
professional equipment, than on ordinary soundcards. These instruments are more
demanding for careful adjustment of Style and Transformation Regulators. But
your efforts will be compensated in full by a much more impressive outcome.
Please listen to our MP3 demos created with with professional equipment and
judge by yourself.

Q 05: Is it possible to create Styles on my own?A 05: The internal structure of SE30 and SEM20 Styles is quite complex
and we do not offer the user an option to create his or her own original styles.
However, the user of Cakewalk software can use MFX Plug-ins which come with
NTONYX Kit 1 and Kit 2, such as Chords Arpeggio, Chords Converter, Chords
Creator, Smart Tremolo, Controller Adjuster, Drum Adjuster, Note Adjuster, Shape
Creator, Step Adjuster, Velocity Scaler. These tools allow to transform MIDI
data in the way rather similar to that of SE. But you'll have to build up chains
of Plug-ins to execute more complex transformations.

Q 06: What is the best way to use the styles: should I simply play
block chords and allow SE to create the bass line (for example) or should I play
the bass line and let SE calculate the chords?A 06: SE cannot produce Chords from the Bass Line - not yet, but some SE
Styles can generate the Bass Line from Chords. In any case we would recommend to
experiment with different Styles and different initial scores. Probably you will
find new original modes of employment of this or that style leading to
interesting results.

Q 07: What soundcards sound best with your demos?A 07: Majority of SE MIDI demos adequately sound on Yamaha and Roland GM
modules. We tend to believe, that GM sets of these manufacturers are well
balanced and arranged. The compositions also sound well on the popular SBLive!
card. However, no matter what hardware you are using, scale adjustment of
Velocity and fine-tuning of other controllers may be required in some cases.

Q 08: Is Vocal close to Violin physically or are Style names only
relative? (While experimenting I managed to get a very interesting violin sound
with the help of a Style for vocal parts).A 08: It is quite possible, that in your particular case the character of
violin performance was indeed very close to human singing. However it should be
remembered that there are some common regularities irrespective of the
instrument you are using. For example, Volume and Tempo depend more on the
genre, musical phrasing, rather than on the instrument used. Other paramenters
are on the contrary instrument-dependent. For example if you reduce or
altogether exclude Expression (Volume) value while using a Sax Style, you may
use this (originally) Sax Style for Distortion Guitar imitation.

Q 09: Using Styles for percussion and bass I got weird detioration of
phrasing. Did I do anything wrong? A 09: Probably you have not paid enough attention to the Comment, where
the Meter, optimal Tempo and type of percussion set is indicated. Especially
noticeable misinterpretation of the initial material happens when you process
3/4 or 6/8 material by a Style intended for 4/4 meter (or vice versa).

Q 10: Using a wind instrument Style for processing a solo part, I have
obtained very soft slur performance instead of the original staccato-like -
something which I didn't intend to do. Did I do anything wrong?A 10: You may have studied the Style comment not attentively enough. Many
Styles perform automatic slur. Sometimes all notes are slurred, sometimes only
those which are situated in certain parts of the musical phrase. You could have
avoided automatic slurring by switching off (muting) Duration parameter. But
before doing this you'd better have transformed the track by a special Auxiliary
style "Solo Transformation".

Q 11: Some solo guitar licks of one of the Styles sound excessive to
my ear. How can I get rid of them?A 11: The best way is to use Transformation Regulators to reduce, or
altogether exclude some of the effects. In some cases Wheel effects are linked
to the Wheel regulator, sometimes they are linked to the Variable regulator.

Q 12: Processing a Harmonica part I have detected truncation and
occasional loss of the notes in the end of the phrase. Why does it happen?A 12: Many Styles for solo and most Styles for wind and vocal voices,
include special "Breath Rule", which inserts a forced pause in the end of the
musical phrase or between two phrases. Therefore, if you insert the "Phrase End"
marker directly at the release of a key (ending of the note), this note will be
shortened. If you place the "Phrase Start" marker between two short notes, the
first note can disappear altogether. You have to take this into account when you
mark phrases.

Q 13: By changing Start Time in Styles of guitar accompaniment the
rhythmic pattern of the Syle is sometimes completely detiorated. Why does it
happen?A 13: The accompaniment generation Styles is based on special internal
patterns, which are determined by Start Time parameter. If the initial 1/1 chord
is supposed to be substituted with four 1/4 chords, but you set Start Time to
50% instead of default 100%, you'll end up with four 1/8 chords. Now suppose you
set Start Time to 27% or other odd value - it will radically deteriorate the
rhythm pattern or altogether crash it.

Q 14: I have noticed, that I obtain a somewhat different result each
time I process a part, even though the initial material, the Style and all
settings remain the same. Is it normal?A 14: Of course it is - exactly like with human performance. A musician
cannot play the same piece absolutely identically day after day. There is a
random component in SE transformation - just to ceate a more convincing
"natural" feel. To reduce or exclude such "a casual behavior" of a Style, all
you have to do is to adjust RND controllers.

Q 15: A Sax Style increases attack of the sound. Is this normal?A 15: Some Styles for wind instruments and strings add an Expression
(Volume) envelope to soften the attack. You can decrease the depth of this
parameter, if you don't like the result. You may also want to use Adjuster tool
(SE30) or Controller Adjuster (MFX Kit 1 for Cakewalk) to change the Expression
(Volume) envelope after applying a Style.

Q 16: I try to transform a Sax track which was created with a
MIDI-keyboard. Parallel notes, which were present originally, are missing in the
resulting track. Is it normal?A 16: Some Styles are intended for Solo, while other - for Chords
transformation. Solo parts produced by SE do not have overlapping notes. (By the
way, the Sax cannot produce two notes simultaneously!) Of course, if you prefer
to keep all notes from your initial part, you may want to use a Chord style,
however, the individual nuances of each played note may not be preserved
properly. The best way is to separate your initial track into two tracks (if it
has double parallel notes), or into three tracks (if it has triple parallel
notes). And then transform each track independently.

Q 17: I have noticed that the same Style (with an identical name)
gives different result with SE30 and SEM20 for the same initial material. Why
does it happen?A 17: First of all, every style (by default) has some random settings,
which will cause a different result every time you do a transformation - even if
you use the same initial material. The second reason is that SEM20 is a MFX
Plug-in, which is working as a filter (as all other MFX tools). And a filter
gets data from internal buffer by portions. As a result, SEM20 may not always
have all necessary information it needs for correct processing. For example, you
mark the beginning and end of a phrase, but the portion transmitted through the
buffer, does not correspond to the length of this phrase. SEM20 does not "see"
the End marker and cannot execute the transformation correctly, so some nuances
are lost. The best way to reduce this undesirable phenomenon is to increase the
size of the buffer. As for SE30, it always has a complete fragment "before its
eyes", so the tranformations are more accurate.

Q 18: I muted Expression parameter, but Expression values were
transformed anyway. Is it a Style bug?A 18: Many styles have an active Variable regulator, which can be
connected to any parameter or to several parameters at once. Style developers do
this to expand potentials of a style. If the Expression parameter is linked to
Variable, you cannot get rid of its influence completely, even if you mute this
parameter in the Control panel.

Q 19: How does the stand alone Style Enhancer differ from the Cakewalk
version? Which has more features? Which is more difficult to use?A 19: Each version has its own cons and pros. SE3.0 can't work inside
Cakewalk/SONAR. Besides, you can apply several SEMs to different Cakewalk tracks
and adjust all of them simultaneously. On the other hand, SE3.0 can process
standard MIDI files and save the results both in MIDI 0 and MIDI 1 formats,
which can be later opened by Cakewalk. SE3.0 is more powerful, as soon as the
ways of transformation are concerned. You can not only hear, but also see the
results of transformation in real-time. Transformations are made faster than in
SEM2.0 Cakewalk Plug-in. Besides, in SE3.0 there are some useful tools like
Adjuster, Drum Adjuster etc. Finally, you can transform tempo - something which
is impossible to do with SEM2.0 for Cakewalk/SONAR. For more detail please see
the Products Comparison page:
http://www.ntonyx.com/se_comparison.htm

Q 20: How can one entrust performance to a program, if only the
composer knows, the way his piece is to be performed?A 20: Why not, if the program does it well? And why not allow the program
to make a normally mechanical, "soulless" MIDI-file to sound more naturally? By
the way a composer sometimes does not know exactly, how his or her piece will
really sound when performed by an orchesra, nor can he always perform it
himself. Very often the composer "authorizes" the performer to interpret the
piece, thus lifting responsibility from his own shoulders and putting it on the
performers. And sometimes the performer really makes the composed music,
originally rather flat and uninteresting, to sound more impressive and more
convincing than it was planned (or ever imagined) by the composer.
Unfortunately, the traditional pattern "composer-MIDI score-synth" lacks the
factor of the creative interpretation, so characteristic of live music. PM
technology simply helps to correct this drawback.

Q 21: Is it possible to achieve satisfactory results with those cheap
OPL-based soundcards?A 21: The MIDI-file transformations will be noticeable even with those
cards, no doubt about that. But if a synth does not recognize half of
controllers and its Tenor and Soprano Sax sound uniformly, than it is really
hard to speak about adequate use of all potentials the PM can offer. However if
you transform only Velocity and Start Time and don't care much for, say, the
timbre, then OK: You may experiment with SE on an OPL chip, but don't complain
if your transformed files still don't sound naturally enough.

Q 22: Why does the same SE-processed fragment sound differently on
other modules?A 22: The main job of SE is transformation of Start Time and Velocity
parameters, as well as triggering of appropriate controllers. Various modules
differently react to controllers and such parameters as Velocity, Modulation,
Pitch Wheel etc. As the result, transformed files sound somewhat differently
with different modules. The optimum sound can be achieved with Transformation
Regulators, in fact one of their tasks is to adjust the Style to a specific
module the composer or arranger uses. SE30 includes a very useful tool -
Adjuster, intended for the real-time control of numerous parameters. This is a
good way to adjust an existing MIDI file to a different sound device.

Q 23: Recently upgraded from Cubase 3.7 to 5.0 VST32. The text in the
Tracks Pane, the Measures Pane, and the Notes Pane is missing and/or garbled. If
I uninstall Cubase from the computer, both SE2.1 and SE3.0 display text. The
Menu Bar in both SE2.1 and SE3.0 is legible and the functions seem to work OK.
What can I do?A 23: Probably you have the old version of SE30. If this is the case, you
should download and install the new version (you may try to install in the same
folder without deinstallation). In the upgraded version there is an option to
change the font (Options->Colors->Font). Please select a font, existing in your
system. We believe this will solve your problem. The same procedure helps, if
some of the labels in the main window are missing.

Q 24: I'm running Cakewalk 9.0 which includes a limited version of
SEM20. I would like to increase the library of styles which are accessible from
Cakewalk. From NTONYX site I understand that SE would run as a stand-alone
program. This is not convenient if you wish to apply some styles to your
Cakewalk MIDI tracks. Is it possible to have the full library as a plug-in to
Cakewalk?A 24: Cakewalk/SONAR contains demo-version - SEM20 Lite. To use all
opportunities of SEM, and also to have an opportunity to install additional
Style Sets, you need to get the full version of SEM. You can
purchase SEM20 plus
six additional Style Sets (##2-7) containing more than 50 Styles each.

Q 25: Are the Style sets for SEM1.28 compatible with SEM2.0?A 25: No, they are not. However, the NTONYX policy is directed to further
development of our software, so registered users are entitled to discounts when
purchasing our new products and to qualified technical support.

Q 26: Can I apply SEM20 percussion Styles for processing non-GM parts?A 26: Yes you can. If your module does not support GM drum set, it is
necessary to converse the percussion part into GM, to process it, and then to do
reverse conversion. The best way to do this is to use Note Adjuster of MFX Kit 1
together with SEM20. Make the following chain: <Note Adjuster - SEM20 - Note
Adjuster>. In the first Note Adjuster conversion of the note numbers is done.
For example, 36 to 41, 37 to 62 etc. You can simultaniously adjust Velocity. In
the second Note Adjuster the reverse conversion of the note numbers is
performed: - 41 to 36, 62 to 37 etc. After this procedure you can process your
percussion part, originally recorded in non-GM standard.

Q 27: Increase of the Transformation Regulators leads to limitation or
deterioration of Velocity and Expression functioning. What to do in such cases?A 27: All transformations of Velocity and Expression are performed by the
Style relative to the initial value. If this initial value of Velocity is 100,
and you anticipate of velocity bigger than +27, you should decrease the initial
value first to give enough "space" to the increase you want. Sometimes it's
desirable to decrease Velocity proportionally, to preserve the feel you got when
playing the part live. In this case before applying a Style, you might want to
use the NTONYX Controller Adjuster from MFX Kit 1, or Cakewalk/SONAR Event
Filter.

Q 28: I've apparently successfully downloaded the
Style Enhancer Micro 2.4, but I can't seem to access it through my Sonar. Where
exactly should I put it so that the Sonar recognizes it?A 28: After installation you can nominate SEM2.0 to any MIDI track in
Sonar or Cakewalk. Right Click button in a field FX in Track Pane, choose MIDI
effects -> Style Enhancer Micro 2.0. Please read SEM2.0 Help (F1) and read also
Cakewalk Help about use MIDI FX.

Q 29: I downloaded the new SEM20 styles set #2 and #3 (I had #2 I
believe) and have been unable to install them. The installer runs and then the
files seem to load - but the styles are not in the program when I open it up in
Cakewalk v9.0 I await further instruction.A 29: Probably you have installed SEM20 twice in different directories.
We recommend you to execute the following actions:
1. Uninstall SEM20 (Start->Contol Panel->Add/Remove Program).
2. Remove the directory SEM20 manually from "C:\Program Files\Common
Files\NTONYX", or from the location, where you have installed SEM20 (make search
on HD).
3. Open the file regedit.exe. It is in Windows directory. In the Registry remove
the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ntonyx\SE12 with the entire content.
4. Reboot the system and install SEM20 and Styles Sets anew.

Q 30: My SEM2.0 does not work with SONAR 1.3.1A 30: Cakewalk has altered MFX in SONAR 1.3 in such a way, that all third
party developers are forced to modify their MFX plug-ins. We have upgraded
SEM2.0 and from now on, even if MFX changes again, SEM2.0 will work correctly.
(Please note that we can't make similar upgrade of SEM1.28). Probably you use
the old version of SEM2.0 (it is the trial version which came with 30 Styles and
was bundled with Sonar 1.0).